Texas, Louisiana Gulf Coast ports post mixed results for April

Container flows in April rose in Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas, while the Port of New Orleans reported declines in containerized and breakbulk movements.

Port Houston records 20% rise in container flows in April

Port Houston handled 387,478 twenty-foot equivalent units in April, a 20% year-over-year increase compared to the same month in 2024. 

Year to date, the port has handled 1.45 million TEUs, a 4% year-over-year increase.

“We are staying busy across our facilities, working with our partners to make sure every piece of cargo and every box moves quickly to get to its final destination,” Charlie Jenkins, CEO of Port Houston, said in a news release. “We are keenly aware of the uncertainty in the market today and are closely monitoring cargo volumes.”

Loaded containerized imports rose 21% year over year to 177,733 TEUs, and loaded exports increased 16% year over year to 138,810 TEUs.

For April, Port Houston’s steel imports increased 40% year over year to 403,684 tons. Exports of steel decreased 11,362% to 37,659 tons.

Imports of containerized refrigerated cargo was up 46% in April compared to the same month in 2024, corresponding with peak season for many citrus and other fruits, port officials said.

Port Houston recorded 1,029 total ship and barge calls in April, a 4% increase from the same month last year.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Port Houston have been addressing the need to evolve the area’s busy shipping complex over the past several years with a massive, ongoing project to expand the Houston Ship Channel. That project just got another financial boost from USACE, which allocated $131 million in total for 2025 work at Port Houston. It’s one of two southeast Texas waterway projects that received funding during this round.

USACE recently allocated $33 million to the Houston Ship Channel Expansion, known as Project 11. The funding includes $98 million to ensure the Houston Ship Channel is dredged and operational, and $33 million is going toward the Project 11 channel expansion project.

Port Houston is a 25-mile-long complex of nearly 200 private and public industrial terminals along the 52-mile-long manmade Houston Ship Channel, which connects the port to the Gulf of Mexico.

Project 11 is a $1.1 billion expansion of the Houston Ship Channel to accommodate an additional 1,400 vessels per year. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2028.

Related: Mexico’s largest container port slowly reopens after worker strike 

Port of Corpus Christi records strong exports of petroleum, crude oil

The Port of Corpus Christi moved almost 16.8 million tons of cargo in April, a 3.7% year-over-year increase from the same month in 2024.

Exports of crude oil totaled 9.9 million tons for the month, a 7.6% increase from the same month last year.

Shipments of petroleum totaled 5.2 million tons during April, an 11% year-over-year increase. 

Dry bulk cargo decreased 12% year over year to 642,433 tons in April, while chemical shipments rose 1% year over year to 289,231 tons.

The Port of Corpus Christi had 371 barge calls in April, a 9% year-over-year decrease. Ships at the port totaled 200 during the month, a 4% increase from the same year-ago period.

Port of New Orleans sees decrease in breakbulk, container volumes 

The Port of New Orleans’ container volume declined 1.2% year over year in April to 41,305 TEUs.

Beakbulk cargo movements recorded a 19% year-over-year decrease in April to 91,961 short tons, led by shipments of steel, natural rubber, bagged cargo and project shipments.

“Top container exports included plastic resins, followed by various chemicals and synthetic rubber,” Kimberly Curth, Port of New Orleans spokeswoman, told FreightWaves in an email. “Imports included coffee and various chemicals, followed by furniture.”

Fiscal year to date, the Port of New Orleans has handled 923,995 short tons of break bulk cargo, a 6% year-over-year increase. The port’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.

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